This invention pertains to a system for the management and routing of optical fiber cables, more particularly to a system which provides a transverse exit trough for routing fiber optic cables from a longitudinal trough.
In the telecommunications industry, there are numerous locations where a significant amount of fiber optic cable must be routed within a facility or from one facility to another. The routing within a facility may be from one piece of equipment to another, or from outside lines coming into a central office and to fiber optic connectors where they are connected to equipment within the facility.
There are typically a large number of fibers and all the fibers must be handled with care to avoid damage to the fiber optic cable, which would hinder its performance.
In a typical facility, fiber optic troughs are normally used to carry or route the fiber optic cables. In many facilities, the troughs or raceways are located overhead and over the locations of the fiber optic distribution frames, bays and equipment.
A significant trough network or raceway configuration may be needed to contain and route the fiber optic cables. The installation time and expense can be substantial for trough systems and is further increased in situations in which the troughs are not readily adaptable to the configuration desired in the facility, or when the troughs, couplings, junctions, downfalls and other equipment do not readily install or easily assemble.
There are also situations in which new equipment is later added below an existing trough and it is desirable to route cable from the trough down to the existing equipment where a downfall is not located.
The design, layout and assembly of these trough systems are further complicated because of the unique nature of fiber optic cables and how the fiber optic cable must be placed, routed and managed. In the management of fiber optic cables, it is important to maintain a minimum bend radius to protect the fiber optic cables. Examples of two current typical minimum bend radii are 1xc2xd inches, and the other 30 mm.
In a span of a fiber optic trough it is useful to route fiber optic cable out of the trough to different equipment or locations, and to the extent this can be accomplished without providing an intersection junction or cutting an aperture to receive a transition trough (such as a downspout or downward elbow or trumpet) time and money are conserved.
It is further undesirable for an exit trough to excessively distort, bend or otherwise manipulate the longitudinal trough to which it is attached. There are prior art exit troughs, for instance, that attach to the top edge of a trough, and when loaded with fiber optical cable, twist, bend and otherwise distort the trough or raceway.
Embodiments of this invention provide an improved fiber optic cable routing system for the routing of fiber optic cable out of a span or length of longitudinal trough section, and more particularly an exit trough or offramp for routing fiber optic cable out of such a trough.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved fiber optic cable exit trough or offramp system.